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Faced with overcrowded classrooms, a sprawling north Phoenix school district plans to add its 38th campus at a cost of about $15 million.

The Deer Valley Unified School District, the state's fifth-largest, serves Phoenix, Glendale, Peoria, Anthem, New River, Cave Creek and unincorporated areas in northwest Maricopa County. The district has 37 campuses, where about 34,000 students attend pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

The district plans to locate the new elementary school south of Dove Valley Road and east of North Valley Parkway.

"The northwest region of the district is growing, and our student-enrollment projections show that a new school is needed in that area for the 2015-16 school year," district Superintendent James R. Veitenheimer said.

Two elementary schools — Sunset Ridge, 35707 N. 33rd Lane, and Norterra Canyon, 2200 W. Maya Road — have been adding pupils since 2009, school officials said, with even more students projected to enroll next fall. Norterra Canyon is considered overcrowded and Sunset Ridge is at full capacity.

Bonds approved in a 2008 election will cover the cost of the new campus, district officials said. The project expects $750,000 in adjacent ways funding to finance off-site improvements.

Last new campus in 2007

The future need for the campus was recognized in 2003, when the district governing board and the School Facilities Board bought property for it. A developer also donated land.

District officials expect the construction of the school, which is projected to be just less than 80,000 square feet, to start in September. The campus should be completed by July 2015 and opened for students by the following August, said Ashley Morris, a district spokeswoman.

Lauran Clark (center) and her second-grade classmates listen as their teacher reads them a story, Monday, April 21, 2014, at Norterra Canyon School in Phoenix.(Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic)

The last time the district built a school was Norterra Canyon in 2007.

The new campus will be designed to accommodate 1,000 kindergartenthrough eighth-grade students, said Morris. It likely will draw students from Norterra Canyon and Sunset Ridge, she said.

District officials said the school will enroll kindergartners through seventh-graders its first year, allowing current seventh-graders to finish out the year at their own schools.

Phoenix has projected growth in the area since early 2000, although the Great Recession slowed it down.

District 2 Councilman Jim Waringsaid he was surprised the district plans to build the school because single-family housing has slowed so much and developers are hesitant to "dive right in." Waring said he sees smaller housing developments, such as apartments and condominiums, rather than large-scale subdivisions sprouting in the area.

Some major improvements over the past five years could drive further development. Arizona mall developer Westcor and Phoenix, for example, connected Dove Valley Road to Cave Creek Highway to the east and Interstate 17 to the west in 2013. The John C. Lincoln Health Network also has opened a clinic.

The student capacity at Sunset Ridge is 1,039, while Norterra Canyon is 967. Norterra Canyon, which serves the attendance area around the new school site, now has 1,074 students, up from 865 in 2009. Sunset Ridge is maxed out, school officials said.

"This school used to have 1,350 kids until they opened Norterra," said Lynn Byrn, Sunset Ridge's principal. "Norterra took a huge chunk of our kids, and then that whole area started building up and that area is now starting to feel an influx. We're at capacity, kind of teetering."

The boundaries for the new school have not been finalized, Morris said.

Parents dropping off children at Norterra Canyon one recent morning said they are satisfied with the school but concerned about overcrowding, especially in the lower grades.

Brandi Cummins, 29, is the parent of a 6-year-old first-grader.

"I do feel it's a little bit too much," she said. "I get frustrated because I feel like she doesn't get enough attention."

Her daughter is in a classroom of 30 children. Cummins said that she would like a ratio of 20 pupils per teacher for her daughter.

Some parents at Sunset Ridge said they'd also like to see a lower pupils-to-teacher ratio.

"It's definitely different than when I was growing up," said Summer Somera. "My schools were very small. Maybe two (classes) of each grade versus when my oldest was in kindergarten, where there were seven kindergarten classrooms.